There are lots of hazards working on the golf course. Anyone who works outside – and with powered equipment – is exposed to environmental hazards and the risk of being injured by a powerful piece of equipment. When you work in golf course maintenance, you add the hazard (and distraction) of working around golfers who are potentially launching golf balls in your direction at over 100 mph and chemicals that are safe when handled correctly, but … must be handled correctly.

Over the past few years, I’ve written articles about several of these safety issues. I hope I’ve raised awareness of workplace safety issues and given you useful information for reducing the risk of accidents and injuries. Most of those articles have addressed a specific issue such as hearing loss, heat stress, equipment rollovers and chemical spills. Now I want to share with you the most important thing you can do to protect your crew from getting hurt at work, and it’s much easier than you imagine.

Hold regular safety training meetings. And by regular, I mean on a schedule, at least once a month. I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, you said it was easy. I don’t have time to hold a safety meeting every month. I don’t even have time to do all of the important stuff during the growing season. I do my safety training during the winter.” Maybe you didn’t acknowledge that you do “the important stuff,” but the truth is, the most important stuff gets done first. What does that make safety training if you only do it when it’s raining or in the winter? I’ll answer that later.

Fair warning. I’m going to be preaching from my soapbox, but first, I’ll climb down and tell you that for most of my career as a golf course superintendent, I would have said the same thing: “I don’t have time to hold a monthly safety training meeting this month. I’ll do it when things slow down.” It’s not that I didn’t care. I was concerned about my crew, and I thought I was safety minded. I always cautioned my crew to work safely. I provided safety glasses and hearing protection and encouraged my crew to wear them. And a couple of times a year, I’d hold a safety meeting.

Now I’ll climb back up on my soapbox and answer that question: What does it make safety training when you only do it in the winter, or when you can’t do anything else? It makes it one of the lowest priorities on your to-do list. You’re sending a subtle, but powerful message to your crew when the only time you conduct a safety training session is when you can’t do anything else. Like I said, we find the time to do the important things and the really important things are written on the calendar. Just for the record, as I mentioned above, I was guilty of this approach to safety training. I know many other superintendents who are, too.

Most, no, not most, all superintendents want to run a safe department and do not want to see a crew member get hurt at work. I’ve never asked a golf course superintendent about their safety program and had them respond, “I don’t have a safety program and don’t care about safety.” The answer I usually get is, “safety is a high priority for me.” But when I follow up with, “Great! How often do you hold a safety meeting?” many say, “uh … well … uh … we should do more … sometimes we hold one on a rainy day or maybe in the winter when we can’t do anything else.” Safety training is like exercising, eating right and flossing your teeth; you know you should do them, but it’s hard to stay on a regimen, and a few times a year isn’t effective.

Here’s another thing I often hear from superintendents when they tell me about an accident at their course, “they just weren’t thinking, it was a stupid mistake.” Just not thinking, stupid mistakes and taking a chance because, “I didn’t think it would happen” are unquestionably the greatest causes of all workplace accidents. Changing your crew’s attitude, the way they think – or don’t think – about safety is the best way to reduce accidents. And the best way to change their attitude is by holding a monthly safety meeting.

Every individual safety topic and training session is important, but what’s really important is the cumulative effect of taking the time to talk about safety on a regular basis. When you take the time during a busy week to hold a safety meeting, they will quickly understand you are taking this seriously. You will begin to develop what I call a “Culture of Safety.” That’s what happens when they understand safety is important to you, not as an obligation, but because you care about them and want them to be safe. It becomes more important to do a job safely than just get it done. Crew members will remind each other to wear safety glasses and hearing protection. They become invested in the process and point out unsafe practices and encourage each other to not take unnecessary risks. As one superintendent told me, “it is a total game-changer.”

If you’re still thinking you don’t have time, STOP. That’s ridiculous. It only takes about 30 minutes a month. I know you care enough to find 30 minutes a month to hold a safety meeting. But how do you do it? PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR. See, I told you it was easy. Pick a day that works for you, say the second Tuesday of the month and mark it down in bright red each month for the rest of the year for everyone to see. Have the crew stay after lunch and talk about a safety issue or hazard. Don’t worry too much about the topic or what you say. Saying anything is better than not talking about safety at all. You may have a weekly staff meeting on your calendar, a monthly green committee meeting, and maybe a men’s and women’s golf committee meeting. If it’s important and you don’t want to miss it, you put it on your calendar. It will work for your safety meeting, too.

If you really want to ramp it up and make an impression, try what I call the 30/30 plan. Take 30 seconds each day to mention safety. Ask your crew if they have any safety issues they want to discuss and remind them to make good decisions and work safely today. And once a month hold that 30-minute safety meeting.

Mickey McCord is the founder of McCord Golf Services and Safety, He is a frequent GCI contributor.

Everything is bigger at Reynolds

Features - Spotlight

Turf and golf without end. One of the world’s biggest agronomic operations resides within the Georgia pines.

While the word “nestled” may not necessarily apply to a golf and lifestyle spread of over 10,000 acres, the sprawling adult playground and family retreat of Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia, does indeed present a wooded intimacy playing through the provincial pines.

Situated 70 miles west of Augusta and about 90 miles east of Atlanta, Reynolds’ rural lake country terrain hasn’t simply rested on better than a century’s worth of respites; rather, the golf, real estate and membership-driven resort continues to augment an active population which basically constitutes a city within itself.

With an array of water activities across nearly 400 miles of Lake Oconee shoreline, a bustling social scene, tennis, fitness and a new, state-of-the art Sporting Grounds complete with 20-station clay shooting course – one may think that the Gentleman’s Game could get lost in the calendar. But with six-and-a-half courses, 117 total holes, 1,000 acres of golf green space and an all-star cast of course designers, including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio and Rees Jones, golf remains at Reynolds’ forefront for care, cost, staffing and maintenance. Of the approximately 625 employees at Reynolds, 150 staff members work in horticulture and golf course maintenance. Another 100 are in golf operations.

photos courtesy of Reynolds Lake Oconee

“It’s a big undertaking, and a process,” says general manager Lon Grundy, whose purview ranges from golf, agronomy, food and beverage, marinas, fitness and housekeeping. “But the department that has the richest tenue comes from our golf and golf course maintenance team, which is great, because that’s lighter lifting for me.”

Provided the vastness of the blueprint – with each course sporting its own respective clubhouse, golf and grounds staff – Grundy and his team work with a philosophy of both mobility and malleability when it comes to working Reynolds’ golf operations. “We’ve tried to develop a model where we don’t sit in an office and just have those people come to us, because we need an opportunity to see those different grounds,” Grundy says.

Sitting amid piles of spreadsheets does little to engage current golf memberships (at 3,600; some with two to a member) or enthuse prospective members.

“When you’re doing 140,000 rounds a year – and scaling up – the hardest challenge is balancing tradition with being progressive to be able to attract the newest golfer, with those still attracted to the game’s traditions,” director of golf Wes Forester says.

From the top down, visibility proves crucial to Reynolds’ success.

“Most of my time in the golf area is related to the members, going to member events, making sure I can have a relationship with 5,000 people,” Grundy says. “Knowing we’ve got a lot of runway in front of us as far as selling more real estate, the call to action is that somebody needs to walk in here and identify with our lifestyle. And that happens by connecting with our people.”

To ensure course quality and customer care, the Reynolds team has found success in a pyramidal style of responsibilities. While some courses have shared maintenance facilities, each of the six has its own clubhouse, own head golf professional and own head superintendent.

photos courtesy of Reynolds Lake Oconee

“It’s a big footprint,” says Lane Singleton, vice president of agronomy at Reynolds. “There aren’t too many properties like this in the country, in the world.”

Balancing the welcome pressures and privilege of maintaining a world-class golf facility, Singleton tilts his head at the former. “I’d kinda’ lean toward pressure, but we create that internally,” he says. “We’ve worked extremely hard to get to where we’re at, and it’s always about sustaining that high level and those high expectations on a daily basis. And it’s not just about staying on that level through the seasons and weather and long periods of time – it’s also about raising that bar. We created the bar, so how do you work to raise it? Because member expectations don’t go down.”

And though the Reynolds’ vibe has long embraced the laid-back lake country lifestyle, such ease finds no purchase in ensuring continual quality oversight of the grounds.

“I’ll see each course at least every couple of days. The majority of time is spent in my ‘truck office’ getting to a lot of face time with my guys,” says Singleton, noting that courses can be 20 minutes apart by car. “But it’s a great structure. With this many courses, this many golf holes, you need a guy on the ground at each course to see 100 percent of everything and not split time. In the past, we’ve tried (splitting superintendents at properties) for financials, but for expectations, for this quality of company, it’s best to have a person on the grounds for each course.”

And Singleton’s truck tires aren’t the only things rotating across Reynolds. While course conditions – green speeds and rough heights – remain consistent across daily play, Reynolds supports several different types of turfgrasses between the six golf properties.

“People appreciate the diversity in grasses,” Grundy says. “We have some bentgrass greens and some with bermuda greens. We overseed some courses in winter, and some we don’t. So, the courses don’t all have the same agronomy practices.”

Bermudagrass is predominant, but Reynolds also sports zoysiagrass fairways on one course, zoysiagrass tees across property (mixed in with Bermudagrass tees) and bentrgrass greens on two courses.

“Our geographic location allows to us grow turfgrasses for both cool and warm seasons,” Singleton says. “We have such distinct seasonal changes, so two of our courses have bentgrass greens and the other four have bermudagrass. Over the past five years, we’ve switched the ratio, whereas we used to have four bentgrass courses and two bermuda. That leant itself to a number of operational efficiencies based on aerification schedules and times of year, as far as which courses are really good and which courses are struggling to get there based on the seasons.”

photos courtesy of Reynolds Lake Oconee

Seasonal spikes in play have a relationship to seasonal grasses, as Reynolds is home to cool winters and humid summers.

“We’re a big spring and fall business, and bentgrass tends to be at its best in those seasons,” Singleton says. “Bermudagrass is fairly good 12 months a year. We have our struggles a bit in the spring, though it’s almost perfect in the fall. Wintertime can get pretty cold here, and we have to cover greens to protect Bermuda. But with the bentgrass, we don’t need to do that in winter. So, there’s your operational flexibility. And it’s the opposite in the summer, where the bent can struggle a bit with the thick humidity and we’re trying to keep it at elevated heights at cut and just trying to keep it alive. It’s more of a defensive mode of operation.”

Overseeding to ryegrasses in winter proves a rotational strategy. “It’s a challenge for us because we’re so busy in the fall, and we have to overseed in the fall,” Singleton says. “So, you essentially take a couple of courses off-line in one of our peak seasons. But I think it’s important from a rotation basis, agronomically, because overseeding year-after-year is just too detrimental to the turf.”

As for manning the massive spread, the team admits to empathy with industry challenges to both continually find and retain staffers. Given its bucolic bounty, the leadership at Reynolds relies on creativity and local loyalty to recruit and retain team members.

“The team here is phenomenal, but labor in golf is a huge problem right now,” Singleton says. “And throw in our rural location, it can magnify itself. It’s constantly challenging, and not just here, but in our industry worldwide.”

The training regimen for golf staff simply can’t be a guy standing before a whiteboard.

“There’s a lot of developing people so they can develop their people,” Forester adds. “And, hey, sometimes training can be dry, so it’s important to keep it fun and exciting with, say, videos or golf quizzes.”

Opportunities for advancement proves crucial for keeping employees on staff.

“The pool of resources can be a challenge, not being in a big city,” Grundy says. “But there are a lot of folks our here who are loyal to the region, and they develop a lot of careers out here at Reynolds – we’ve got every conceivable department one can think of for work experience. And I say this with a humble spirit, but when you’ve got a strong brand and a property this size, you do get a little better draw (of the work pool) than some of the other folks trying to hire in the community.”

Judd Spicer is a golf writer based in Palm Desert, Calif., and is a frequent GCI contributor.

The ABC’s of goal setting

Features - Career

SMART, GREEN and LINKED are more than acronyms. They could be the keys to taking your career to a higher level.

There are many reasons why a professional golf course manager may need to develop a strategy of setting goals. These range from prioritizing daily work tasks (more effectively) to organizing complex projects for documentation to the epic goal or bucket list. To make the best decisions when it comes to goals and goal setting, there are several systems to help create powerful goals. They are known as SMART, GREEN and LINKED goals and they can make the difference between a good and great career. They are collectively known as the ABC’s of goal setting and often as the situation or setting changes the actual definition of elements within the acronyms change so if you have seen various versions of these over the years, don’t panic. Adjust your course and keep moving forward. Let’s break down some of the secrets of the ABC’s of goal setting.

SMART goals

SMART goals are perhaps the most familiar to most people or professionals. SMART is an acronym for the steps you should take when evaluating general goals that take into consideration the following criteria.

S – Specific (simple, sensible, significant)

M – Measurable (meaningful, motivating)

A – Achievable (agreed, attainable)

R – Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based)

T – Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited)

The SMART goal approach is used with confidence by every level of goal setter from novice to expert. It establishes the core things that must exist for a goal to be noted, acted upon and completed within the scope established. The following is a general example of the SMART process at work.

The primary task involves fertilizing five acres of bermudagrass lawns at the property entrance. Now expanding the primary task using the SMART process will generate very detailed action steps leading to the highest level of execution for the task. First, you confirm that you have enough 16-4-8 fertilizer in stock to apply your chosen rate of one pound of nitrogen with half the rate applied in two directions using a rotary cone spreader verified and calibrated. It must be watered in for 15 minutes, according to historic and product label recommendations, so an inspection of the irrigation system will be performed prior to applying the fertilizer. Spreader will be washed and stored upon completion with a fertilizer application record files online and in the application record book. All tasks must be completed by noon Thursday. Sound familiar?

Let’s look deeper. Notice that a goal can have many associated tasks and watch how the SMART method can simplify the process. Is it (S) specific? Yes, fertilize one pound of nitrogen on five acres of bermudagrass lawn with a 16-4-8 fertilizer and water in for 15 minutes. Is it (M) Measurable? Yes, you can quantify the size of the area the amount of fertilizer and water. Is it (A) attainable? Yes, your plan is a good one. Is it (R) resourced? Yes, you have verified all products, personnel and tools are available. Is it (T) time-based? Yes, you must have all tasks completed by noon Thursday.

The SMART method allowed the primary goal to be evaluated for effectiveness, thus improving the odds of reaching the goal on time. Imagine the number of things that could have made the goal difficult to achieve, including not having enough fertilizer, broken spreader or bad calibration and irrigation problems. Goal setting is a process and it allows you to preplan or even reverse engineer the needed steps to ensure the goal will be reached. It is more than making a list and checking a box.

GREEN goals

GREEN goals are also tools to evaluate the steps and become more effective in reaching complex goals. GREEN goals are perfect when setting environmental goals/tasks and include the following criteria.

It should be noted that SMART goal theories still apply and that GREEN goals provide an extra level of reflection when dealing with complicated multi-level goals. Below is a general example of GREEN goal setting.

Your goal is to establish Best Management Practices for water conservation for your facility, using the GREEN goal strategy. It looks like this. G – Generational, the water BMP will be crafted into a shared and saved living document that will be used by many generations who work at the property. R – Repeatable, the project will utilize the GCSAA, chapter and personal templates capturing processes and data that is repeatable at other facilities. E – Easy to Start, the project will begin by capturing basic water infrastructure items filed within the operation, so it is easy to start. E – Environomic (the fusion of environmental and financial impacts), the project will save water and money, so it is environomic. N – Networkable, the project has an outreach component and by sharing with green media and local media the results the potential to generate green public relations is very high and could end up on the front page of the New York Times (this has actually happened). GREEN goal strategies add another level of evaluation, especially for golf facilities.

Goal setting is a process and it allows you to preplan or even reverse engineer the needed steps to ensure the goal will be reached.”

LINKED goals

Beyond the ordinary segments of other goal setting acronyms and their impact exists the synergy of LINKED goals. It is widely accepted that the individual should focus on only a few goals at a time. In fact, research shows that if you have one to three goals, you can attain two or three. If you have four to seven goals, you can attain one or two. And if you have more than seven goals, you are lucky to attain one goal but more likely to reach zero of your stated goals. I knew there had to be a better way, so I discovered the LINKED method. LINKED goals link similar goals together then by taking reverse engineering steps to craft powerful sub-goals that creatively connect where you aspire to be to where you are now. You can accomplish huge life/professional goals and navigate a sea of goals as long as you keep a study heading by identifying those sub-goals and connections that are critical to the larger goal/success. Sometimes writing a time horizon can help with the clarity of this process. For example, if you want to eventually be a golf course superintendent (the big goal) and you are currently a turf student (early in the journey of reaching the big goal), your time horizon should start with you as a turf student (current) and have benchmarks (next logical events and sub-goals). Benchmarks include things like completing an internship at Augusta National, volunteering at a PGA tour event, graduating turf school, getting a job as a greenskeeper, landing a job as a second assistant/spray technician at a private club, moving into an assistant golf course superintendent position and ending at the linked goal of becoming the head golf course superintendent. Be detailed, be flexible, but, most importantly, stay committed to your goal and its processes on a daily basis. The more creative your benchmarks are, the more synergy you can expect from the process. Now that you have an overview review the LINKED acronym below:

L – Legendary (milestone personal/professional achievements)

I – Innovative (outside the box, NEO)

N – Navigable (many ways to reach the destination)

K – Kinetic (relating to or resulting from motion or activity)

E – Edifying (strengthens others)

D – Destined (divinely guided)

The LINKED process can lead to extraordinary results. Here is a personal example explaining the LINKED goal process in detail. My linked goal was to win the GCSAA Presidents Award for Environmental Stewardship. Following the acronym, it looks like this: L – Legendary, winning the PAES which is the GCSAA’s highest environmental honor, is considered a career/life achievement award by many so it is certainly legendary. I – Innovative, my plan was to be innovative through case studies, certifications and outreach. My water and IPM case studies led to my first book deal “The Environmental Stewardship Toolkit,” John Wiley and Sons 2012 (available on Amazon.com). That’s where GREEN and LINKED goals debuted, so again it was pretty innovative. N – Navigable, in the beginning, I thought the path was clear that I would be at my original property when eventually I reached the link goal, but because I had multiple strategies if needed, I made a bold move and took a tour of duty at a second multi-course property to complete the task and improve my skills, proving the goal was indeed navigable. K – Kinetic, the motion required was epic and connected me to many people and programs such as the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association, Audubon International, E-Par, GEO and many GCSAA staff, including green expert Mark Johnson, so it was Kinetic and resulted in other awards and lessons along the way that were epic in their own right. E – Edifying, it is hard to say just how many people were impacted by this epic goal. I have taught thousands of amazing people in classes, plus many more through books and articles and dozens of my staff have gone on to be superintendents or manage their own green businesses. Humbly, we all made each other better, stronger. D – Destined, it seems an obvious conclusion to reaching any lofty goal that has progressed through the LINKED philosophy that it was destined to be. However, on my quest to win the PAES, there were at least 99 reasons or occasions to quit or give up, ranging from droughts to floods. The deep truth is that you must believe you are destined to reach the goal and be willing to keep moving forward no matter what occurs even against the negativity of those close to you. I won the PAES in 2010 on a Tuesday and because of the connections created by the LINKED process and an aggressive time horizon I also won the TurfNet Superintendent of the Year on Thursday. Not a bad week 10 years of LINKED perseverance in the making.

That was a lot of information and I know what you are thinking: All that stuff may work for some people, but not me. I ask a simple question: Why not you? The power of these methods and measures is that it makes you aware and connected to your goals, visions and action steps every day, multiple times a day. This is powerful because you begin to make progress and then others come to your aid. The synergy starts to build, and you see a clearer path to achievement. The bigger the achievements are, the bigger the confidence you have to chase even bigger goals and aspirations. I have dedicated most of my professional life to refining these strategies and have written extensively about my successes and my challenges. In the end, the ability to identify and achieve complex goals is a treasure map to fill your life with amazing things, but you must do the work. SMART, GREEN AND LINKED goals are keys to unlocking an amazing life. All it takes is a little effort each day.

Anthony Williams, CGCS, is the director of golf course maintenance and landscaping at the Four Seasons Resort Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas. He’s a frequent GCI contributor.

Sierra Star receives around 15,000 “starts” per year, according to director of golf Dave Schacht.

courtesy of Mammoth Mountain

Respectively working with approximately 150-day golf seasons doesn’t yield a leisurely prep window, and while golfers are itching to get seasons underway, course managers and superintendents at both locales are battling the attitude of altitude.

Whatever tally a seasonal snowfall brings (or doesn’t) directly results into crucial choices for getting courses open fast, and in the best condition possible.

“The toughest thing for us is winter, and what the winter brings,” Sierra Star superintendent Patrick Lewis says. “We’re not just high elevation, we’re extreme amounts of snow. Last season was a light winter, and that was 260 inches of snow. The year before (2016), we set the record for inches of water, and that was over 600 inches of snow. So, come spring time, when your course is buried under 8 or 9 feet of snow, that presents some interesting challenges.”

Of course, winter moisture isn’t merely about inches when it comes to golf season – it’s also about the timing of those inches.

Courtesy of Big Bear Mountain resort

“This past winter (2017-18), even though we had a good snowfall, it really didn’t start until March,” Lewis says. “So, we ended up with some really dry areas; not our putting surfaces, thankfully, but what did happen was a lot of ice build-up, which really did a number on some places across the course. The challenge chasing that, being at such high elevation, is that we’ll get snow until June. We’re trying to open for Memorial Day, and it’s freezing at night, which doesn’t result in a lot of germination when you’re trying to re-grow at that time of year. It can be a struggle to get things in really good shape early on.”

Taking advantage of a compact golf season requires heightened creativity and flexibility.

“We have a pretty short window to make hay when the sun is shining,” says Dave Schacht, director of golf and head golf professional at Sierra Star. “I don’t even refer to ‘rounds’ anymore. I call them ‘starts.’ We average about 100 starts over 150 days and do around 15,000 rounds. It could be a three-hole loop of play and lunch, or a super twilight round at 4 p.m., a five-hole round at 5, or a nine-hole round as we work to court the millennials.”

At historic Bear Mountain, the enhanced ball flight of elevated play has been testing club selection since 1948.“Probably the most challenging aspect is that we’ve got about 90 days of growth; good growth, where we’ve got the soil temps where they need to be, and it’s not too cold,” Bear Mountain director of golf Bjorn Bruce said. “Beyond that, it’s about a lot of preparation prior to the grow season, and then a lot of preparation putting the course to bed at the tail end of it and getting ready for winter.”

For course operators, fluid futures can bring tough lessons. After a previous year’s snowfall of 90 inches, Big Bear saw a mere 26 total inches in the winter of 2017-18, 4 of which flaked down in April. The average snowfall in Big Bear is about 62 inches. With the root base basically dead on certain portions of the course and soil temps only in the high 40s into May, last winter proved a dramatic inverse from seasons’ past.

“We’ve had our challenges this year,” says Bear Mountain superintendent Dave Flaxbeard, who also has worked at courses in Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley. “Last year and the year before, I got back here April 1, and mowed the greens the same morning. By the time we hit mid-January this season, most of the damage was already done. And when I got back, the weather didn’t allow me to do much culturally. I tried verticutting, but nothing.”

With a lack of snowfall and/or spring rain, options to irrigate can be limited. “Our irrigation system is off during winter. It’s frozen,” Bruce adds. “You can’t turn it on or it will explode. So, we need to drain the irrigation, pump out the lines with an air compressor. And then, this past winter – it doesn’t snow. So, it’s like, ‘How do you get water out there? How do you water your greens?’ We have a 500-gallon tank we have access to, yet it’s 20 degrees outside. But the greens are dry and need water, but then if we water, it’s going to turn to ice. It’s all pretty wild.”

While both Sierra Star and Bear Mountain use a combo of ryegrass and bluegrass fairways and Poa annua and bentrgrass mixture on the greens for sustainability and heartiness, the high altitude locales need ample prep for the expectation of snowfall – whether it arrives or not.

“We run into trouble when we get a really cold fall, and then don’t get snow until January. That’s when we really start to fight with the sustainability of the turf,” Schacht says. “We’ve had some tough openers, but Pat has really learned from past experiences. We throw a ton of sand down on the greens, but Mother Nature is really in charge. We just rent the place.”

Schacht keeps close contact with other elevated locations in California on successful maintenance practices, though the option of covering greens hasn’t been employed at his track.

“We just use sand. We’ve found that’s the best,” Schacht says. “California is sorta’ hard in what the state will let you put down for chemicals, so that can be tricky. So, we just go with sand. We haven’t used any covers.”

When to open? When to aerate?

Balancing calendars finds equal measure when assessing the pressure of an opening date, and superintendents working at extreme California altitude collectively acknowledge that an open course now is better than a perfect course later.

“It’s a big responsibility to just be open,” Sierra Star superintendent Patrick Lewis says. “And even though every year is different, I really do feel that you’ve just got to get the darned place open. There are a lot of people who work here who depend on that paycheck. I just think it’s important that, even though I wish the course could be perfect right away, people understand the challenges we face, and I think it's just important to let the players have at it."

Sierra Star director of golf and head golf professional Dave Schacht says preparing the course to immediately meet customer expectations is a stern test. “If we plug our greens twice a year, we’re screwed,” he says. “People from Southern California expect greens to stimp at 11, and Patrick is able to get it done. I’m in constant awe of what he's able to accomplish."

For that pure putting, timing proves paramount.

“We try and do it in spring before we’re open, and we’re usually able to pull that off,” Lewis says of aeration at Sierra Star. “The challenge there is that my staff can be pretty low early on in season. Fortunately, for us, we have guys who work the ski area in the winter, and then come down here in the summer and make a living.”

And yet, hustle doesn’t omit crucial attention to quality.

“I core in spring and fall. Come fall, we just try and do nine holes at a time, and I think we do a really good job in getting things open and playable quickly,” Lewis adds. “It's just taking time to fill the holes with topdressing and making sure we have exactly the right amount of sand, where it's not too much that the greens feel like a sand trap, but not too little where the green is crazy bumpy.”

Bear Mountain superintendent Dave Flaxbeard would seem to empathize when unveiling his grounds under less than ideal conditions.

“We weren’t ready to open this year, but I thought that nothing is going to happen real fast, so we might as well open,” he says. “Because I couldn’t tell when conditions would be acceptable to me, and what’s acceptable to me still isn’t here. But we couldn’t afford to lose those rounds. I tend to be critical of myself, but I don’t know any superintendent that doesn't go out on his golf course and find something wrong. And if he doesn’t, he’s not looking hard enough.”

At Bear Mountain, covering greens with burlap sacks has been sampled with a modicum of success. “Sometimes I do cover in (early spring), though that’s very labor intensive with the turf spikes, and it takes forever,” Flaxbeard says.

Lewis has considered borrowing a straw cover technique often seen at courses in the frigid Upper Midwest. “But I don’t know if we could do that here, because it’s so darned windy,” he adds. “Of course, then we’d need to figure out how to get straw, because one of our other biggest challenges being at this elevation is that we’re also in the middle of nowhere.”

In Big Bear, Flaxbeard treats greens with snow mold prevention and uses a wetting agent to keep moisture on top of the turf. The highest elevated course in California, Sierra Star also must brace annually for snow mold issues. “We do our snow mold applications, and I try to time that accordingly, along with finding the right product and rotating the products,” Lewis says.

Between ample snowfall and a dry winter, both locales would surely seem to opt for the former option. Even when a massive snow dump results in plowing greens. “We use a 6½-foot PTO-driven snow blower on a tractor, and even go so far as to use a skid loader on the putting surfaces,” Lewis says. “You have to be very careful. If you miss, of course, you can really get rid of some turf.”

More winter flake fall results in welcome work for course staff. “Coming out of last winter, it was great – a lot of snow, a lot of moisture, especially in the spring,” Bruce says. “We couldn’t mow enough. It was too much grass and lush everywhere, and that’s a great problem to have.”

Despite remote locations, neither Sierra Star nor Bear Mountain feel affected by labor issues, as both enjoy split-staffing power shared between slope and course employees basically going from one job to another with the seasons. “We don’t have the biggest crew, but we have the right crew,” Bruce says.

Squeezing in an abundance of play in a short time frame is a challenge facing employees at Bear Mountain Golf Course.

Courtesy of Big Bear Mountain resort

Come a winter’s freeze and eventual thaw, Bear Mountain’s tight staff is tasked with “bringing in everything,” according to Bruce, with yardage markers, hole monuments, protective netting, benches and ball washers all hauled indoors before an inverse occurs in the spring.

“Courses down the hill, they don’t have to deal with any of that,” Bruce says. “Up here, it’s pretty much shutting down a business and then starting it again from scratch twice a year, every year.”

Such seasonality also directly impacts course brass. To wit: Schacht and Bruce work ski operations in their respective destinations come winter, and Flaxbeard works the Bear seven months out of the year. “I have a calendar and better check it,” Bruce says. “When you’re in the middle of the winter operation, the last thing you’re thinking about is, ‘I wonder what the greens are looking like right now?’ You just can’t get caught with the pants down.”

Judd Spicer is a golf writer based in Palm Desert, Calif., and is a frequent GCI contributor.

Travels with Terry

Departments - Travels with Terry

Globetrotting consulting agronomist Terry Buchen visits many golf courses annually with his digital camera in hand. He shares helpful ideas relating to maintenance equipment from the golf course superintendents he visits – as well as a few ideas of his own – with timely photos and captions that explore the changing world of golf course management.

“Whiskers”

Locating quick coupler valve, gate valve, isolation valve and air relief valve covers in mulched or pine straw beds is made easier using surveyor’s whiskers. They are attached by drilling holes in the center of the valve box covers and screwing them into the underside. The Swanson MWOR61000 6-Inch Marking Whiskers Orange Colored 25 pack is available on Amazon Prime for $5.99/each, which are also available in other fluorescent colors. This great idea is used as a supplement to a GPS as-built blueprint, metal detectors and field as-builts in a notebook by John Jeffreys, a superintendent at Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort. I saw them in good use at the Vestavia Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., where Owen Coulson, superintendent; Jeff Womack, 18-hole course assistant, and Drew Charcandy, 9-hole course assistant, are using them with great success.

Efficient Bunker Surrounds Crew

This Toro Workman GTX 2WD Gasoline Engine 4 Seat Turf Vehicle, with optional canopy, is towing a Broyhill Silhouette II Greens Mower Trailer. The staff mows the bunker surrounds with two Husqvarna Push-Type Rotary Mowers and edges the bunkers with two Echo String-Line Trimmers. Cleanup is done easily with a Husqvarna Backpack Blower. Leak-proof fuel cans are also carried in the bed. This four-person crew starts at hole No. 1 and stays well ahead of play and can finish the bunker work easily in one day. Brian Goleski is the superintendent at the Noyac Golf Club in Sag Harbor, Long Island, N.Y.